Writing for Yahoo!’s Contributor Network (formerly Associated Content)

I’ve been a contributor on Associated Content, now Yahoo!’s Contributor Network (since the site was purchased by them), for several years now.  For the last few years I was a “Featured Contributor” in their Technology category, so focused most of my writing on meeting their requirements.

Featured Tutorial
The good news is that for a few weeks now, an article I wrote well over a year ago on using the Pigeon IM client to manage all your messaging connections has been Yahoo’s “Featured Tech Tutorial.”  The up-tick in views (which translates into more money) was significant and appreciated.

Changes to the Featured Contributor Program

Recently, Yahoo! announced that they were dis-continuing their previous Featured Contributor program and implementing a new one.  We were all invited to apply for one or more FC designations, based on category.  Naturally, having nearly 25 years experience in computers, programming, and consumer electronics, I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting re-accepted in the Technology category.  Only one problem.  The old program had a production quota – I was supposed to contribute 3 articles per month for their standard pay for FC articles ($10 each) plus one more article in the Tech category.  With a “day job” keeping me busy 50-80 hours a week, plus the responsibilities of raising a family and working on our farm, I frequently didn’t complete all 4.  The new program has a much more relaxed quota however – only 1 article every 3 months is required.  I could have made that even at the busiest of times.

Unfortunately, my past record of not completing all assignments on time garnered me a rejection this time around.  Go figure.  Guess I’ll concentrate more on my presence at Suite 101.

I don’t plan on jumping away from the Y!CN altogether.  There’s something to be said for having articles on a Yahoo! owned site.  But I’ve noticed that some of my content on other sites is gaining momentum.  For example, TrueKnowledge.com’s Facts About Wyatt Earp has a link to my article  Surprising Facts about the Gunfight at the OK Corral published on Socyberty.com (a Triond site).  This has led to a nice increase in page views there.  If I continue to flush out content on these other platforms and not focus so much on Yahoo!, I should have a nice, diverse base of residual-earning content.